NPR – ‘American Soil’ Is Increasingly Foreign Owned

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NPR – ‘American Soil’ Is Increasingly Foreign Owned

American soil. Those are two words that are commonly used to stir up patriotic feelings. They are also words that can't be be taken for granted, because today nearly 30 million acres of U.S. farmland are held by foreign investors. That number has doubled in the past two decades, which is raising alarm bells in farming communities.

When the stock market tanked during the last recession, foreign investors began buying up big swaths of U.S. farmland. And because there are no federal restrictions on the amount of land that can be foreign-owned, it's been left up to individual states to decide on any limitations.

China Raises Threat of Rare-Earths Cutoff to U.S. – Foreign Policy

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China Raises Threat of Rare-Earths Cutoff to U.S. – Foreign Policy

With a simple visit to an obscure factory on Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping has raised the specter that China could potentially cut off supplies of critical materials needed by huge swaths of the U.S. economy, underscoring growing concerns that large-scale economic integration is boomeranging and becoming a geopolitical weapon.

With the U.S.-China trade war intensifying, Chinese state media last week began floating the idea of banning exports of rare-earth elements to the United States, one of several possible Chinese responses to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to jack up tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese goods and blacklist telecoms maker Huawei.

I think trade wars are a bad idea, as we should be bringing the world together for our collective good, rather then tearing it apart. While the United States, over time could find alternatives to imported rare earths, including more domestic mining and alternative product formulations, it could be unneccessarily harmful in the short-term for both the United States and China. It's no different then the OPEC trade embargo in the 1970s -- it was very harmful in the short-term, although in the long-term increased domestic production and fuel economy standards helped dull the pain, as did a loosening of the embargo.

May 27, 2019 Night

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Good evening! Partly clear and 62 degrees in Dormansville, NY. There is a north breeze at 8 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 49 degrees. Sleeping in the truck once again tonight at my parents house. 😴 Enjoy this beautiful evening while it lasts, we might be in for a period of unstable weather once again for the week.☁ Clouds and rain tomorrow, once again.

It was a pretty decent weekend up in the Green Mountains, bar my hammock ripping into two, the black flies, and forgetting to pack extra socks. 🧦 I was sure I had the socks with me, and I started to paw through my pack on Thursday night, and I just assumed they were burred in my pack. Frustrating through. I’ve started to use a packing list before camping, but i didn’t have a printed copy of the list to check off when I started packing on Wednesday night, as Thursday was busy with the Pine Bush event.✍ So be it. The black flies weren’t truly bad until it got really sunny and nice this morning, but I had a nice drive down Forest Road 71 on this sunny morning, and I got home relatively early to unpack.💼

Hiking the Stratton Mountain, Stratton Pond loop sure was exhausting but well worth it in my opinion.🚶 It got my goal of doing something new and different at camp and the change was special even if the 12 or 13 mile walk caused by me missing Winhall River trail made it exhausting. I got to see some new and different trails,⛰ the other side of Stratton Pond and even the summit of Stratton was enjoyable as it’s the first time I’ve hiked it in six years. Been kind of achy and sore all day today, but I’m sure in a few day I’ll be feeling better or I should go to the doctor prior to June 1st when the Health Insurance deductibles go up. 😷 We need universal healthcare, ain’t that obvious.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 49 degrees at 5am. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 23rd. North wind 5 to 8 mph. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 53 degrees. The record low of 33 occurred back in 1994.

Tonight will have a Waning Crescent Moon 🌘 with 27% illuminated. The moon will rise at 2:44 am. The New Moon is on Sunday night with scattered showers. The Strawberry Moon 🌝 is on Sunday, June 16th. The sun will rise at 5:23 am with the first light at 4:49 am, which is 39 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 9 hours of darkness, a decrease of one minute and 29 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will rain likely before 11am, then periods of rain and possibly a thunderstorm between 11am and 4pm, then occasional showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 4pm. 🌦 High of 58 degrees at 12pm. 15 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 15th. Maximum dew point of 51 at 4pm. 🏖️ Southeast wind 5 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had light rain in the morning, which became mostly sunny by afternoon. The high last year was 74 degrees. The record high of 93 was set in 2016. There was a dusting of snow in 1902.❄

Tomorrow I should pick up my dry cleaning, 👕 and maybe I should think about trying to get up to LL Bean to see if they will once again exchange my broken hammock. Well, if I paid a premium for the hammock, well with my card rewards, and they have a wonderful lifetime guarantee, they should replace it, because I don’t think I did anything to kill it besides flopping in it after being tired hiking. If they don’t replace it for free (again — the carbinaner snapped on the first one I got), I’ll get another brand, because I really want to do more hammock camping. I also want get the battery box and maybe the marine battery for my second battery I plan to install in the truck, in my cap, giving me extra storage for cloudy days up at camp. Then I should be able to be 100% solar for all my camp electrical needs.

Right now, next weekend looks cool but sunny. 😎 Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 72. Maximum dew point of 51 at 6pm. Sunny and low humidity. No complaints there. Sunday, a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 73. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Maximum dew point of 56 at 1pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 74 degrees. Things could definitely change by then.

I plan to stay in town next weekend, although things could change my mind.🤔 For example, if it looked like it was going to exceptionally hot out, I might consider going up to the Potholers, but not necessarily. Instead, I have a lot of projects I’d like to work on at home, including wiring up and mounting the second accessory battery in the cap of my truck.🔋 I don’t imagine that project will take more then about an hour, but who knows. I might also have some work stuff I have to do next weekend.

But maybe the following weekend I’ll get out of town — I’m hoping by then that Jessup River Road will be open, then I might camp on Hardwood Hill then hike back on Saturday on one of the trails into the West Canada Lake Wilderness back to Pillsbury Lake from Sled Harbor and then on Sunday paddle around Speculator. 🏕 If I camp up there, I’ll have good cellphone service for any work matters that come up. Plus I love the views from the campsite — assuming the road is open for the spring, and that campsite is not taken.

In four weeks on June 24 the sun will be setting at 8:37 pm,🌄 which is 14 minutes and 33 seconds later then tonight. Latest sunset of the year or pretty darn close to it. Almost all of the time — except for 2 minutes — we gain over the next few weeks will be in the evening, as earth wobble brings the transit of the sun closer to 1 PM. In 2018 on that day, we had rain and temperatures between 76 and 61 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 80 and 59 degrees. The record high of 96 degrees was set back in 1943.

Amazing to think in four weeks, we will be well into summer, but that’s what happens when Memorial Day Weekend comes to a close. Maybe that weekend I’ll be in Schoharie County, and can camp at Burnt Rossman after spending all day at the Mine Kill State Park pool.🏊🏿

Looking ahead, Latest Sunset 🌆 is in 4 weeks, July 🏊🏿 is in 5 weeks, Cow Appreciation Day 🐂 is in 7 weeks, Last Sunset After 8 PM 🌆 is in 11 weeks, Labor Day 👨‍🏭 is in 14 weeks and Columbus Day 🛥️ is in 19 weeks.

Another Collapsing Adirondac Village Building

I’m thankful for…

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I’m thinking about doing a new section of the blog every few days on things I’m thankful for. Mostly for myself, to express gratitude and think what is good for life but also to share with you some ideas on what is good today in our world.

Warm

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Maybe the fire was a bit too warm, with the relatively mild conditions we had last night.

Taken on Sunday May 26, 2019 at Branch Pond.

LT-AT South

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It's only 6.7 miles to Kelley Stand Road via Stratton Mountain, the Stratton Pond Trail is about 3.5 miles to the road, but not where the AT/LT crosses it.

Taken on Sunday May 26, 2019